Phillies rout the Mets 9-1 to finish the season with 90 victories

NEW YORK — Rob Thomson hasn’t been concerned about reaching 90 wins. With the Phillies’ National League wild-card series starting at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday against the Miami Marlins, he has spent most of his energy on making sure his players stay healthy as the regular season dwindles down. But with his team’s 9-1 win over the Mets in Game 162 on Sunday, the Phillies reached 90 wins for the first time since 2011. It is an accomplishment, even if it wasn’t the top priority.

“It does feel good,” Thomson said. “You always want to win every game, but not at the expense of any of your players at this time of year and the position that we’re. But 90 wins... I don’t think it’s happened very much around here in the history of the organization. So, it feels good. And the guys should be proud of that.”

They finished their season 90-72, which is a comparable record to last year’s 87 wins, but with vastly different results down the stretch. The 2022 Phillies went 11-14 in September, snagging baseball’s last playoff spot in Game 160. These 2023 Phillies went 15-13 in September, and secured their playoff berth with five games in the regular season to spare.

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There has been no need to treat these final five games with a sense of urgency. Thomson has made his sure his players aren’t running wild on the basepaths to avoid injuries. The Phillies called up Nick Nelson, Michael Plassmeyer and Luis Oritz from triple A to save their arms for the postseason. They’ve used this time to experiment. Cris Sanchez pitched a scoreless inning of relief on Saturday night, just to remind himself of how it felt to pitch without much time to warm up. Low-leverage bullpen arms have been tried out in more high-leverage spots.

The real value of this time is to set up for next week, and the Phillies were able to do that on Sunday. Matt Strahm pitched as the opener and allowed no hits or runs with two strikeouts in the first inning. Nelson came in behind him, giving the Phillies 5⅓ innings to help save the bullpen. Seranthony Domínguez pitched 2/3 of an inning behind him, in the seventh. Gregory Soto took the eighth, pitching a hitless inning with two strikeouts. Michael Lorenzen pitched the ninth to secure the win.

“Nelson was so efficient that we had to pull him early to get our guys work,” Thomson said. “I mean, he was that good. But Strahm, Soto, Seranthony, Lorenzen, all really good stuff. Really encouraging.”

Reaching 90 wins wasn’t the only milestone reached by the Phillies on Sunday. In the sixth inning, Alec Bohm hit his 20th home run of the season, a solo shot to right field off Mets starter José Butto. It was the first 20-home run season of Bohm’s career. With the home run, he reached 96 RBIs, the most by a Phillies third baseman since Scott Rolen in 2001.

Bohm also joined a group of five other Phillies players with 20 or more home runs: Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and J.T. Realmuto. It is the first time in franchise history that the Phillies have had as many as six players with 20 or more home runs.

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It was an encouraging showing for Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh, too. Stott had been scuffling this month but had a three-hit day with a walk on Sunday. Marsh went 2-for-5 with four RBIs, hitting a three-run home run into the Phillies bullpen in the ninth inning to give his team a comfortable 9-1 lead. It was Marsh’s first home run against left-handed pitcher since April.

The next time the Phillies play, it’ll be in the playoffs.

“I’m really proud of our club, of our coaches,” Thomson said. “We started off very slow. There was a lot of questions about our club. But they just kept batting, they kept fighting, and finally, we got it going. We got hot and we stayed hot, for the most part. They never lost faith.”

Schwarber finished his regular season with a career-low .197 batting average, a career-high 47 home runs and a career-high 126 walks. It was an atypical season to say the least.

“It was an interesting season, but the production was there,” Schwarber said. “I think the biggest thing was just finding a way to help the team win every day. If I felt like I’m getting on base for those guys behind me, they drove me in, and being able to drive in runs, too, is a good thing.

The average is the average, whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s time to focus on the postseason. Yeah, you set some career-highs in things which is great but now the focus is on the postseason.”